NewHeavenSalesmanthe best/worst part of this was his claim that if he hadn't tasered her, she could have run out into traffic and been seriously hurt, ignoring the fact that she was in an empty parking lot.

blue vein steelno matter how much she ran, she would have always been in an empty parking lot?

blue vein steelyes, the cop is a fat turd, but crazy people running into traffic is a real concern.

But is the cop's possible negligence (and please note that the same cop was responsible for the girl's ineffective cuffing in front and leaving her unsupervised at the substation) the grounds for a wrongful death civil suit? The parents of the victim seem to think so, and the lack of definite case law means this could be interesting!

fracturedI think that's is a good reason for police tasering me every time I think about j-walking.

The update to the story is that she is now braindead with no chance of recovery. That was for a hit-and-run that they already connected her to. The issue there was about control. So the police use whatever means are necessary to reassert their dominance. You can never actually defend yourself from a police officer without expecting a significant time in prison. And people are regularly killed by police.

Believe it or not we live in a time where the police are renegotiating their position in our lives. Each and every police story is part of a larger narrative. The question is, do we have a role in this narrative, or are we to give the police total agency?

I am generally against the function of the police. I think that they are an illegitimate force. I am not a libertarian.

She apparently went unconscious and is determined to be brain dead as a result of hitting her head on the asphalt. Very sad. I don't see why the cop needed to do that. He could've just reached out and grabbed her. She definitely wasn't innocent though, and was high on cocaine and oxycodone.

I'm also not rating this. It's too morbid, and not necessarily evil. It's just a sad set of mistakes.

Robin KestrelI don't see anyone saying she was innocent. That's the bar in America now? The cops kill somebody and as long as the victim was guilty of something, we shouldn't get all worked up about it?

LeChuckThis is a dumb headline. She was running away after being arrested in connection to a hit and run, so the cop had to chase her down. Maybe he should have tackled her instead because the chance of injury to her would be reduced in that case, but he made a decision under pressure and I can't say it was the wrong one simply because its consequence was so unfortunate. It's fucking stupid to say the cop murdered her because there is no reason to think he intended her death.

ComeuppanceSeriously. Even if he had tackled her, she still could have hit her head on the ground. From that headline, I thought someone was going to pull a gun. Unfortunate accident that was not the result of gross negligence ≠ murder.

pastorofmuppetsShe was already handcuffed, but he doesn't look like the kind of guy who moves his limbs more than he needs to.

takewithfoodFlorida Highway Patrol policy allows for the use of tasers if a suspect is actively resisting with the intent to flee. Which she was. This is why he was cleared of any wrong-doing after two separate hearings. I don't think that he intended to kill her either, he was just following policy.

However, the policy is fucking stupid, and it killed this girl. There is no way around that. Tasing a handcuffed person while they're standing/running on asphalt is apparently not unlike hitting them with a car. The risk of exactly this sort of head injury seems way too high to me to be justified in this situation.

Admittedly, I'm just some guy at a desk somewhere. On the other hand, the girl fucking DIED. So I'm still going to go with "the policy is fucking stupid."

KonversekidAgreed, this incidence only really serves as an exposition that some sort of policy is wrong. Granted I'm sure it is something that could be internally dealt with, and will be by the police force itself.

That being said, there is no point in having this video here as the police officer really isn't at fault and the problem is correctable bureaucratically.

Accidieshe was sprinting away from a police station after being arrested, whether the cop used a taser or his good ol' fashioned body to take her down, this was a risk factor of a situation she was making for herself.

takewithfoodIf tasing her and tackling her to the ground are two options that could easily have resulted in this girl's death, maybe NOT DOING EITHER OF THOSE THINGS would have been the best solution.

Running from the cops while you're handcuffed and probably drugged up sure isn't the best decision in the world, and it definitely puts you at risk for all sorts of nasty consequences, but that doesn't mean we should just accept any action the police take in response. There are degrees of risk, and they need to be weighed against the importance, and the difficulty of catching a feeling 100 lb suspect who is handcuffed and probably drugged up.

LeChuckIf he doesn't taser her or bodily restrain her then what does he do? Run after her until she gets tired? Let her go? I think it's reasonable to empower the police to recapture a fleeing suspect, especially when she is wanted in connection to a serious crime.

takewithfoodHey, I'm all for recapturing a fleeing suspect. What I'd like is a discussion of how much risk is worth it. It's ridiculous to try to frame this as a false dichotomy between "just don't shoot her" and "just let her go".

Accidieit's gonna take some kind of force to stop her, sorry. That's what it takes to stop a crazy person high on heroin and speed fleeing an arrest.

takewithfood"Some kind of force" does not mean "use any force ya like, regardless of the risk". Again, this should not be a black-and-white choice between no force and lethal force. We can be and need to be better than that.

NewHeavenSalesmanI don't know, maybe instituting some sort of national policy on stun gun usage rather than letting every police department write their own rules?

Oh, and holding highway patrol officers to some sort of minimum fitness standard so they could actually catch teenage girls in handcuffs two feet away from them. That could possibly help too.

takewithfoodI don't have any suggestions. I don't know enough about the situation or the location to know what else could reasonably have been done. I can't see where she was running, I don't know what state she was in, or what other dangers she may or may not have posed to herself or others.

All I can tell is that what happened rather predictably killed her, and I don't think it's acceptable to just shrug our collective shoulders and say "hey shit happens".

blue vein steelDont think this is murder. If the cop wasnt a fat sack of shit maybe he could have chased her down, but the woman was clearly out of her mind and could have run into traffic.

NewHeavenSalesmanthe traffic? You mean the street that is like 30 feet away from the door?

yes truly that is a valid reason

blue vein steeli mean, it probably takes about 2 seconds for a running person to cover 30 feet. The cop should have chased her instead of reflexively going for the taser, but a person high or what ever would cause a handcuffed person to run out of a police station would probably also keep that person from looking both ways as they ran through the street.

ScrewtapeThe only way officer McFatty is going to catch her is to go into Eat Attack Mode, either way she's dead.

Can we reserve the hyperbolic attempts to evoke outrage for genuine abuses of power, please?

Seriously. This sucked, and I don't object to it being recorded and publicized, but you can only bang the SHIT PIG MURDERS INNOCENT PERSON drum so often before everyone's emotions callus over and we stop paying attention.

AccidieF'realz.
It takes some serious anti-cop bias to see a murder in this video.
Save headlines like this for an objective case of unnecessary force.

AccidieIn my hometown of Berkeley CA, we banned tasers. Then there was a sad instance of a woman with a knife who had gone crazy for one reason or another. She was on a porch and somebody starting coming out of the house and she abruptly turned to face them with a raised knife. They shot her, they had to, and she died. That's what we need tasers for. I agree they are overused, but they have a place.

BroodMotherPerhaps if cops actually had to stay in shape this guy wouldn't be such a fatass and he maybe could have pursued her without being out of breath after two steps and resorting to something with more range than his fat arms. Fuck giving people authority that can't even take care of themselves (I understand that obesity is often out of one's control, but those people shouldn't be officers in the first place, so I assume this person has no self control and let himself go).

a tragic accident, exacerbated by the officer's callous attitude to her injuries

tasers can be dangerous, and are overused, but better than the alternative

Robin KestrelSo the alternative would have been shooting her in the back with his service revolver? That would have been his next go-to solution if the taser hadn't been available, and you'd be okay with that?

Here's a thought: he could have handcuffed her to something in the station house, rather than just cuffing her hands in front of her. Or he could have locked her in a cell or a room while he did his paperwork or whatever. Nobody runs away, nobody needs to die.

yes, the alternative to tasers are revolvers, or perhaps atlatls, which do not seem practical, although in this case perhaps the officer could have secured her better or caught her without the taser, but we really don't know that and never will

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the police officer did not want this woman to die, and if he realized that she had seriously injured herself, he would have gotten her immediate medical attention

also, the world can be a complicated place, and all sorts of good and bad things go into exercises of authority, some of which we can never know

most importantly, arguing on the internet is a complete boring waste of time, in every case ever, and every person who enjoys it is wrong and always will be

Robin KestrelAs long as there is no national policy on taser use, individual departments are free to set their own rules. Any department policy that makes taser use any different from discharging your weapon invites abuse and misuse, whatever the stated intentions of the officer. I don't feel a need to argue that as it is self-evident.

themilksharkNot sure why this was voted out of the hopper, the title is misleading and stupidly sensational. Interesting story but the submission sucks. CJH knock that kneejerk TMZ shit off.

simon666The woman appears alive in this entire video. And the sensationalism in the title stinks.

FezrenThis clip sure brought out the super-edgy kids for the comments section. Did I read someone say they are against the function of police? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds to reasonable adults?

The only thing evil about this is the comments and the title. The girl's death was an unfortunate tragedy, far removed from murder. I know how rebellious it makes a young person feel to "stick it to the man", but the title of this video is absolutely rediculous.

Tasers save lives, and so do the police officers that wield them.

fracturedAren't you the practical one. I am against the function of police because it is largely oppressive and has little to do with my day to day safety. Generally, police aren't actually preventing crime in a manner that anyone else couldn't - they're not superheroes and their function is largely bureaucratic.

If you can't engage with the idea that some people disagree with how police are used (which is interesting when the police are supposedly serving the public's interest), then I'm sorry. I think it's funny that you quickly create the opposition between "super-edgy kids" and "reasonable adults" to justify your own position. Talk to a lot of reasonable adults, and I might include myself in that largely meaningless category (although I wish I were still a super-edgy kid), and they would agree that the police's presence in our everyday lives has increased to an absurd level. I am against that.

FezrenYour 'position' is naive at best, your description of 'police function' is incorrect, and I still don't believe you're more than 15 years old.

Monkey Napoleonseconded. It's not pretty, but it's not murder. It's also explicitly against post guidelines, so, there's that too.

Robin KestrelI disagree. The woman is very much alive in the footage filmed.

I do think the title & description could stand to be edited, though (something factual like "Handcuffed woman tasered, falls and hits head" with a description of "She went into a coma & is now brain-dead; FHP investigation clears officer of wrongdoing"). Tags should also include Danielle Maudsley and Florida so when the video link inevitably becomes broken, people will know which civilian the cops shocked and inadvertently killed THIS time because it was easier than doing their goddamn jobs. Because, sadly, there are just so many of them these days.